Per Declassified Testimony, Bernanke Blames Blogosphere For Itemizing Disastrous Consequences Of His Actions, Says Goldman Is A Utility

Following loud complaints by Zero Hedge over the weekend about the retention of Bernanke's FCIC testimony from the public's eye, yesterday the commission caved and agreed to release Bernanke's November 17, 2009 89-page closed session confidential transcript, in which, among other things, Bernanke complains about the... blogosphere. Arguably, among the most amusing comments are the circumstances which bring Bernanke to lament the surge of alternative media. On page 68, the Chairsatan, in responding to a question of why nobody could predict the disastrous consequences of Vissarionovich Jr's actions, we see another face of Bernanke - that of the man who deflects his gross incompetence which almost destroyed civilization as we know it... to those who worry too much: "I think there were people -- there were people saying -- including people at the Fed but others as well -- saying, in the year before the crisis, that risk was being underpriced, that spreads were very narrow, that markets seemed ebullient, that liquidity was, in some sense, excessive. There were -- you know, the way I would put it is, I think there were people -- not necessarily the same people -- identifying various parts of the problems. You know, there were people who were concerned about derivatives, there were people that were concerned about subprime mortgages, there were people concerned about the overall credit environment, there were people who were concerned about off-balance-sheet vehicles. But I think notwithstanding the claims of one or two people out there who are now sort of living on the fact that they, quote, anticipated in the crisis, I would still say that the interaction of these things, the “perfect storm” aspect was so complicated and large, that I was certainly not aware, for what it’s worth -- and it could be just my deficiency -- but I was not aware of anybody who had any kind of comprehensive warning. There are people identified -- and the trouble is -- and particularly in this blogosphere we live in now -- at any given moment, there are people identifying 19 different problems, crises." So there you have it: the next time the entire financial system collapses, which should be within a few years at most, and unless Mars bails the Earth out, this will be the last collapse, it will be the blogosphere's fault again, for identifying too many problems again, and for supposedly 'shouting wolf' when it has been right all along.

Some other highlights from Bernanke's declassified testimony which is a must read:

On the question of which banks were safe, and why JPMorgan, better known as the Fed's right hand and gold price suppression bank, was safe, when even Goldman wasn't:

Chairman Angelides: Can I ask a quick follow-up to what he said?

So what you said earlier, J.P. Morgan out of 13 was in a different position. Was there something that they saw or did that was definitively different in terms of market practice as an institution?

MR. BERNANKE: So J.P. Morgan was never under pressure, to my knowledge.

Goldman Sachs, I would say also protected themselves quite well on the whole. They had a lot of capital, a lot of liquidity. But being in the investment banking category rather than the commercial banking category, when that huge funding crisis hit all the investment banks, even Goldman Sachs, we thought there was a real chance that they would go under.

So I think the answer is that there were folks like Jamie Dimon, who -- you know, there is this classic thing that Chuck Prince said about having to dance when the music is playing. But that was exactly the wrong attitude. I mean, basically, if you were thinking about a longer-term -- a longer-term stability to your company, you want to think about what you have to do to make sure you’ve got plenty of reserves and protection against bad events and so on.

So there were some -- obviously, this -- to quote somebody else, Buffett: “When the tide goes out, you see who is swimming naked.” This was the thing that really separated the sheep from the goats. And the really strong people who really protected themselves came out better, and the ones who were relying on the general boom to sweep them along, they were exposed.

Most notable, is Bernanke's statement that any financial reform has to provision for the failure of Goldman, and more notably, says that Goldman is really a utility company under the current regime.

I just want to say this as strongly as possible -- the reform will be a failure if we could not contemplate the failure of Goldman Sachs. That is, there needs to be a system by which Goldman Sachs will go bankrupt and Goldman Sachs’ creditors could lose money. If we don’t have that, then we might as well treat them as a utility, because that’s what they are.

Odd: even "backward" Europe has that system now and it was just used. Furthermore, they don't bail out every single bank with the FDIC's assistance.... We do. Does that mean Goldman IS a utility? And if so, why did the bank just have a near-record bonus payout year?

Actually the man is smart, not like people say... dumb ... he's smart and he demands respect.

His point was that the "markets" basically are "the yelling" ( ie. Not the Fire). Since all he cares about are the "markets". he was mereley pointing out that "if no one yells fire" then there would be no "yelling" (after all -- all that matters is the "yelling" NOT any possible actual physical fire).

"I would still say that the interaction of these things, the “perfect storm” aspect was so complicated and large, that I was certainly not aware, for what it’s worth -- and it could be just my deficiency -- but I was not aware of anybody who had any kind of comprehensive warning."

It's long, it's not particularly eloquent or witty.....but it will serve as the man's epitaph....

Let me be the first of many to tell you that you are never going to find a way out of that bag over your head.

Actually the close analogy is that people stand around and watch a pregnant woman get beaten to death by a group of thugs, but since no one did anything, it never happened even though the woman was brutally murdered right in front of them.

Of course the real problem with the blogosphere is that it gives a public voice to some very intelligent, uncorrupt individuals - allowing them to speak freely without the threat of reprisals. Isn't it amazing how true freedom of speech has become such a problem for the ruling class!

For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it. -David Rockefeller

For little more than a decade, ideological patriots on the blogosphere at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Bernanke/Greenspan family for the inordinate influence we claim you wield over American political and economic institutions. We even believe you are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing your family and your cartel as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - New World Order, if you will. If that's the charge, We stand guilty, and We are proud of it.

I read that BenB is so smart he was able to teach himself calculus. Clearly, such a conclusion is silly when "smart" is not defined.

If BenB understood just some basics of calculus enough to actually apply what he had learned [application being the valid reason for learning], any ability to integrate the mass and maze of symptoms would have yielded the commmon source...namely, fraud and its corrollaries, such as deliberate misrepresentation and non-transparency.

While BenB may know a lot of words, he has memorized their meanings and not understood them enough to apply their meanings.

He cannot integrate lots of odd particles into and large comprehensive explaination... a workable source that points the way to its resolution.

I read that BenB is so smart he was able to teach himself calculus. Clearly, such a conclusion is silly when "smart" is not defined.

If BenB understood just some basics of calculus enough to actually apply what he had learned [application being the valid reason for learning], any ability to integrate the mass and maze of symptoms would have yielded the common source...namely, fraud and its corrollaries, such as deliberate misrepresentation and non-transparency.

While BenB may know a lot of words, he has memorized their meanings and not understood them enough to apply their meanings.

He cannot integrate lots of odd particles into a comprehensive explanation... a workable source that points the way to its resolution.

Or he was deluded and trapped, by trusted "friends", into cumulative overt acts and thereby overwhelmed into what authored that testimony.

- Investigator: Captain Bernanke, some reports prior to the incident with your plane suggest that you were drunk while operating it, many saw crew loading large amounts of alcohol-containing liquids on the plane prior to take off, it is also believed that high levels of alcohol in the blood of the crew and that of the passengers were the main causes of the extreme risk taking on the part of both.

- Bernanke: I don't think I buy the premise of the last part of your question. It was confirmed by the council of certified medical experts, including chief medic Krugman that high alcohol levels in the blood of the crew or the passengers do not contribute to any abnormality in risk-taking patterns, thus we had no reason to believe that alcohol had anything to do with it. Furthermore, experience of the previous crash in 1930s clearly shows that failure to increase blood alcohol levels in critical circumstances can throw crew and passengers into the Great Depression, thus causing complete inoperability of the plane due to the lack of the crew activity.

- Investigator: You were also repeatedly warned by the passengers of series of the technical failures during the flight, I quote: "Engine is failing!, "Wing is gonna fell off!", "We are all gonna fucking die!"

- Bernanke: The fundamental problem with passengers is that they all shout and scream at once, pointing to too many problems, confusing crew and a captain. At the moment, a special council of certified technicians, including chief technician Krugman indicated that level of the failures was at the 50-year average, thus we had no reason to believe that any of those reports from the passengers were accurate. Furthermore, our studies showed concurrent failure of the engine coupled with the wing falling off never happened historically.

- Investigator: You were further accused of causing engines failure, after increasing fuel intake and keeping it at that level for far too long, in addition you have further increased fuel intake following wings cracking, which caused complete engines failure.

- Bernanke: Our decision to increase fuel intake following crisis with the first wing was critical for plane structural stability, with one wing gone, we had only one operable engine. In addition, our studies showed that failure to increase fuel intake in at least one engine causes strong gravitational effects, with no landing gear to speak of, which failed earlier, gravitation was believed to be a deadly force.

- Investigator: Crisis with the wings by many assigned to your decision to pour unlimited amounts of free alcohol to the passengers who after getting drunk started dancing on them.

- Bernanke: Extreme risk-taking by the passengers, was no doubt one of the major causes of the crisis with the wings. However, I do not buy the premise of the second part of your question. As was indicated earlier, alcohol levels in the blood do not contribute to the extreme-taking patterns by either passengers or the crew. We believe that the primary reason for inadequate behavior requires overhaul in regulation by the crew, we will ensure that no more than one passenger is allowed to dance on one wing at a time.

- Investigator: Captain, interviews with economy class passengers indicate that overweght first-class passengers were the primary reason for the cracks on the wings. Given their weight, they caused most of the damage while dancing on them. Some passengers even suggested to throw them off the plane.

- Bernanke: First class passengers are critical for the plane's structural stability. Given they represent 90% of the weight of all passengers on the plane, letting any of them go, throws the plane off-balance and puts extreme pressure on the system, further causing cracks in the structure. In fact, our decision to throw away two first class passengers who were sitting on the right side of the plane caused the crisis with the wings following sudden weight redistribution.

- Investigator: Two first class passengers?

- Bernanke: Yes, in fact they were brothers, last name I believe is Lehman. Since then, we call first class passengers TBTF: Too Big To Fly.

- Investigator: Why Too Big To Fly passengers are even allowed on the plane in the first place?

- Bernanke: Dummy, which part of the structural stability part of my explanation you did not understand?!

This flaming jackass is of the "If we all just close our eyes and ignore it everything will be fine school." Cowards, fools and hand wringing little old women are our leaders.

" -but I was not aware of anybody who had any kind of comprehensive warning"

Ah, but what he means is - Nobody gave me any warning who was properly authorized to have an opinion from those handful of academics and fanboys allowed to present themselves at the high altar of economics. The undercaste of unclean business people and journalists need not approuch.

Ron Paul was recently on one of those shows, Colbert I believe, and was talking about soundness of money and the benefits of a gold standard. Colbert made fun of having to carry around a coin purse and what not.

All I could think is that now these people (most of whom think of themselves as intelligent) will not give another thought to 'sound money' because the first and last time they heard about it was on Colbert and how it was made fun of. There's a guy with a Phd and a beard at the helm, why listen to Paul? Sad.

This is a prophetic warning from Sir James Goldsmith in 1994. The interview was mainly focused on GATT, but he has some prescient things to say about our entire financial system.

Here's some choice quotes..keep in mind this was 1994:

(his prediction regarding GATT) "what will happen is more American products will be sold abroad, which have been manufactured in low cost areas and therefore they will carry a US name , they will have a US manufacturing company, the corporations will make great profits but the workforce will be eliminated"

(his warning about the oligarchs) "In every developing nation you have the same pattern, you have a handful of people who control everything, the oligarchy, but what you get, let me make it clear, the people who are going to lose here are not people like me or you, they are going to be the people who lose their jobs, it is the poor in the rich countries who are going to subsidizing the rich in the poor countries."

(his warning on derivatives)"I believe there is an incredible amount in things like derivatives. I think we are moving toward the outer limits of acceptable risk taking. I think the world GNP is 30 trillion and I believe that the derivatives outstanding every night, which to a large degree is speculative from the banks and other institutions, is about equal to annual turnover of the world. So we have gone very far."

"I think our financial system is dangerous and could create great problems for the real economy."

"I also believe you can not enrich a country by impoverishing its people. I do not believe that the health of an economy is measured by the profitability of its corporations."

I am not sure what the point of his testimony is anymore. Everyone knows he's lying. The legialators know he's lying. That damn blogosphere can prove he's lying. Why not just fit him for his brown shirt and blackboots and let him parade around Wall Street goosestepping all the way? The financial nazi's are back in a big way and this time- we have been late to form any resistance.

They have expanded the theatre and changed the form of warfare, but this time- they seem to be winning big. Guess we should have taken out the real field marshall back in the forties- Rothschild. Funny a family named red shield would use Hitler as a shield...

When I read stuff like this it reminds me, although far superior to mine, just how mediocre this man's intellect is. This would not be a problem if he weren't so independently powerful. The problem is not so much with the individual, rather it is with the structure of the Fed, allowing one appointed, not elected, person to to wield so much authority is just ridiculous.

there were people who were concerned about derivatives, there were people that were concerned about subprime mortgagesthere were people concerned about the overall credit environmentthere were people who were concerned about off-balance-sheet vehicles.

at any given moment, there are people identifying 19 different problems, crises.

But, he is dishonest for implying, because of that, there's no wolf when there's a pack growling at you.

Well stated. That sums it up. Yes, there have always been potential wolves, but what he is saying is we should just simply ignore them and put all of our trust in the banks (Dr. Deficit). His time is up.

Enron accounting is now known as "creative accounting" - with a few tweaks, and a name change, Enron accouting became widely accepted and celebrated. If you're not using creative accounting, then you're behind the curve. What was bad is now, good, for the sake of profit.

If our fearless leaders knew that a major cosmic life changing event was to take place in a few weeks, would they make it known? You do the math.

We wrote to Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, to ask if he thought that the 1844 law should be updated to prevent banks creating digital money, and he diplomatically replied with this:

“[Y]ou suggest that banks should be forced to conform to the underlying purpose of the 1844 Bank Reform Act. You might be aware that I have said publicly that I think ideas in this spirit – such as those advocated by John Kay – certainly merit serious consideration in the debate as to how we reform our financial system. I remain sympathetic to these views.” (See the original letter here).

Remember that the ‘underlying purpose’ of the 1844 Bank Charter Act was toprevent the commercial banks creating money and to restore that privilege to the state.

without a doubt. This is just insult to injury. Period. He is in a position where he has to be honest and open-minded but he clearly is not. It is NOT easy. The knee jerk(pun intended) reaction for any human is to recoil in defense. However, since we elected...ahhaha...FOOLED YA! since we got dumped with this fucking jerk we should atleast expect him to be able to see everything and rise above the typical behavior and realize that this shit could not continue.

Just like right now. Again, it is a deja vu. I feel we are at a point where the lights are flashing and perhaps there is something to be done to raise much needed TRUST IN THE SYSTEM and perhaps curtail the inevitable but it is like the much beloved Homer Simpson (and sorry to compare the two) is asleep at the nuclear reactor utility room.

One of my favorite musicals and my family is into those type of arts more than me but Phantom of the Opera is a masterpiece. Point of No Return is a great song in the musical and I feel we are there.

GROUND AND POUND....now we are in the part where the have-nots, the new poor, the old middle class, whatever you call em, are on the mat. GS is pounding away slowly and shirley. Consistently day after day. Not hard enough to knock you out but more Nazi style...slow and steady. Max pain.

When I read stuff like this it reminds me, although far superior to mine, just how mediocre this man's intellect is. This would not be a problem if he weren't so independently powerful. The problem is not so much with the individual, rather it is with the structure of the Fed, allowing one appointed, not elected, person to to wield so much authority is just ridiculous.

Another, now daily, confirmation that the financial sector of the world economy is a CANCER that the broader sectors of the economy can no longer support. The former sector no longer adds value consistent with their compensation. It all ends badly one way or the other and we eventually get back to reconnecting currency (whatever that is - silver, gold, copper, goods, services) to real value and the appropriate compensation for those people who actual bring real value to the table. All one can do now is know your neighbors and hedge accordingly.

Cancer is the right analogy: and the heart of the cancer is the built in compounding engine in a debt-money system--it must grow at the expense of the host! Ezra Pound had it right: Usury -- the lending of money without regard to the increase of productivity.

I must say you have a far more vigorous democracy then in Europe - we not only have high priests running the show over here but people REALLY think they are Gods when they are just pathetic little men.

Looks to me that GS is not alone. There are several other UTILITY companies on WS in today's "FREE MARKET" which are proxies. And some former which have been sacrificed.
That's how they rock and manipulate almost all markets.

Dont' forget - real market PM price these days = dollar collapse and most probably endgame for banksters... and most of western "democracies".

Ah, yes. The problems were created by not enough people drinking the Kool Aid out of CNBC's propogandas tit. Too many people electing to awaken to the fraud and corruption that has been thrust upon them.

If only people would just continue to listen to Cramers advice this problem would have never occured.

Whats strange about reading this is : Why would anyone trust him then to see signs of inflation or the negative effects from QE2? After all, I am sure there will be multiple signals that inflation is coming.

This is almost saddening to read; its like a confession that he isn't quite all knowing.

LOL, this really is a case study for top phsychiatrists. 'Although EVERYONE was saying its all screwed at the time, the problem is the RIGHT person didnt tell me the collapse, TARP, QE's, and all the rest of it was totaly insane, thats my excuse and Im stickin to it'!

Many zher's are fond of nassim taleb and understand bernanke's comment that the blogosphere has predicted 19 of the last three crises.

All those people living off their past predictions of.doom will be.shown to be blind hogs or stopped clocks as they fail to predict anything new, except for vague stuff such as wars and rumours of wars.

One of the TD's said it best that we cant use foresight to prepare. It is better to take into account our foreblindness.

Ben is NOT the head of the FED..he is a spoke person ala Bagdad Bob..the true elite use him to speak the current line. while telling him what to do on policy..then lies are needed to explain what is obviously counter to what is being done. Deflating the dollar, world wide inflation and the goal of more centralized power. Ben sounds confused and at best a slightly retarded PHD. No one can explain a lie so large without sounding retarded..

the chubby midget failed to do his regulatory job and then failed even more miserably to find proper solutions (which a free market would have sorted in a swift quick kill of the diseased WS dinosaurs)... the guy is the biggest systemic risk in the country outside of Washingtons kamakazi rush for insolvency ...and between the 2 sits Timmay, not a systemic risk, more a systemic retard made of Banana Republic flavoured jelly ...the lunatics have taken over the asylum

Of course Bernanke knows what is going on, and is working to manipulate the crashes and panics to occur when his allies are as fully prefapred as possible. It is just becomong more and more awkward to paint himself as more and more oblivious and innocent, and to digres and fail to answer questions, again and again. He knows exactly what he is saying and tries very hard to avoid technically lying, which is quite a feat for a man in his position. I personally think he expects to have his statements gone over with a fine tooth comb, and wants to give impressions and avoid factual statements, just as his predecessor did, and for exactly the same reasons. Bernanke is a very skilled prostitute, highly qualified, performing masterfully, but the situation must crash, and I want it to crash before his masters are prepared. I want their schemes laid-bare for the whole toiling world of starving debt-slaves to see.

Bernanke is the mouth piece for a political claque that see repression and censorship within their purview.

I remember the pre-Lehman 2008 hearings in Congress about Bear Stearns where Ben and others blamed "Rumor Mongerers" and naked short sellers for the collapse of the bank.

The resulting new rules didn't just stop naked shorting. They imposed a moratorium on any shorting of financial stocks, and a permanent change in which companies were considered 'threshold securities".

Today the NYSE-Deutsche Borse merger stands out as one of the most humiliating moments for the USA in recent memory. RIP NYSE and the old Wild West of AMerican investing.

Bernanke is plain stupid. Flat dumb. He has no reasoning, no understand of the human element in nature. His thoughts defy logic.

Paper IOUs do not drive growth. Why would debt drive growth?

Resources....are....finite. In order to get to tar sands we have to destroy aquafers. Those may come in handy in the future. Bernanke is destroying the United States of America's credit. He is destroying its future.

Bernanke has no foresight. He is the epitome of the burden of man. When man fails to recognize himself within nature, a being interacting with nature, man destroys himself, because he destroys his environment. People took the fact that a condition can be created and ran with it. But they forgot that everything here is limited.

He may be evil, but it doesn't matter, because he is so outright ignorant. Those who elected him are as dumb as he is, as they are no judge of character, or they too are evil.

That in a nutshell is the political/financial system. Either dim witted, or evil.

How can these guys, who all got it all so wrong and are still getting it worng, still be the guys calling the shots. Appalling is the only word I can think of. BB is a disgrace. He should step down and go find a corner to sit in.

They look at increasing poverty as a non-factor, it doesn't concern them, what matters is crowd control and keeping the current elites in place.

Even with millions living on food stamps and more to come, they don't expect the average person to rebel; people have mortgages, credit cards, are afraid of what may happen to them if this system comes to a stand still.

Napoleon said there were two levers to power: interests and fear.

You keep paying interests because you fear you might have nothing tomorrow, meanwhile you really don't have anything, just the right to financially exist to feed those in power.

Of course ridiculously priced risk is something anybody should be able to see. I got really pissed at vanguard and took my money out of vanguard corporate bond funds when they decided to include mbs shit in it and change the name of the fund. That was two years before the blowup if i remember correctly. Even a financial amateur like me.could not.understand expanding a nice conservative corporate bond portfolio by adding mbs junk.

This goes straight to the Austrian's "information problem", as well as to Stalin's cynical "Who, whom?" question. Since 1913, we have given more and more power to fewer and fewer people, whose main job skill has been to adroitly seem to answer questions without allowing that the Smartest People in the Room could have possibly been at fault. Worse, they done their skills at crafting convincing post hoc ergo propter hoc responses. If we hadn't printed as much air-backed fiat money as we did, we would be in far worse shape than we are now!

When did i slip into this parallel universe? Is this the Twilight Zone? I dont recall when exactly it happened but i seem to be living in World that doesnt make sense , unless im dreaming? Am i dreaming? If The Bernank peeled back his face and out stepped some lizard-man from the Planet Fiat , i honestly wouldnt be surprised. It would actually make sense and calm me.

The "utility" comment is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, and has been. If banks are too big to fail, then they are utilities and should be treated as such and operated in the public interest. No more high flying salaries, high profile flambouyant officers, grand office buildings and homes in the Hamptons. Rather, we substitute published salary scales, a rigid cost and return structure, public hearings on rate structures, voters get to have input, and enforce the whole thing with Public Utility Commission inspectors who crawl up their asses with a microscope on a regular basis.

None of the banks want to hear this, for very obvious reasons. But this is the utility model. I am not advocating this; I am stating it is a natural consequence of the TBTF business model. I find it very interesting that The Bernank said it so candidly.

The former ideals of a free market having passed into comedy gold several decades ago leads one to understand that the "utility" aspect of one(s) who can say to the public servants of a gvt that WE must be supported at ALL and ANY cost or YOUR economy-country will be destroyed have so clearly given up their arguements as to being free of the yoke of a utility company style regulation as to make the thoughts to the contrary seem those of a raving madman or a criminal of the highest order.

Gut the "leaders" of these utilities and force them to either die or be regulated out of existance as feasible.

Only those with their head in the koolaid pitcher of the MSM propaganda of free this and that could be so blind.

"I was not aware of anybody who had any kind of comprehensive warning"

Exactly as Bagbalm says above he doesn't accept any (independent) advise or warnings outside his central committee crones and courtiers of the State. This is why the free market is so good at handling inevitable systemic risk and why Bernanks central committee has proven throughout history to be systemically incompetent and more often than not, corrupt.

"..at any given moment, there are people identifying 19 different problems, crises"

Yes 19 different problems and only 1 central committee to deal with them. Bernanke is going stir-crazy juggling too many balls and doesn't realise the problem is because he's given himself the job only armed with one hand. The guy is a systemic idiot.

So what was the problem Bernank, afterall you've had 3 fuking years to work it out???

The big banks were massive and big throughout history is Big Crap. What was Bernanks problem to unsustainable debt? He doubled the debt. What happened to the Big Banks? He propped them up from 50% of the banking market and made them even BIGGER (70% of the market today).

So Bernank has doubled the problem (debt) and increased the systemic risk by nearly 50% you useless crone. Even a complete retard has a better chance of finding a solution than doubling the problem you incompetent monopolist parasite

Let us all enjoy our final days of the blogoshpere. Since it (and we) are obviously a threat to Czar Bernank and we undermine the CONfidence in the economy, then we are inherently a threat to national security and are soon to be shut down by order of the Czar to his DHS bitches. I for one, have really enjoyed it and will miss it dearly. I promise the Czar I wil by AAPL if he lets me live anywhere outside the FEMA camps.

"The fundamentals of the economy are sound" -The Bernanke, September 2008, pre-crash

Exactly, "they" will never shutdown the internets, they may redirect some traffic , for your younguns protection of course or to keep you from funding/supporting evil doers but they know that if they shutdown the faux outrage outlet that some of the U.S. fat ass web surfers may actually rise from their 600.00 trendy desk chair and hit the streets and then who knows what may happen from there.

The party line when this all went down was "we're fine as long as we can maintain confidence in the American economy, dollar, and markets." The economy is shit, so they were saying, and the dipshits that parrotted the line were saying without knowing it, that as long as we can convince people to believe in the lie that we are fine, we can keep drawing foreign capital and be ok. The blogosphere revealed this fact and the blame will fall not on those that drove our economy into the ground and lied about it, but on those that revealed the lie. Because we broke the "confidence."